1st of October, 2016: ICANN freed from U.S. government oversight

Last Edit: 06/03/17

The U.S. government has ceded it's 19 year oversight of ICANN and therefore
the namespace / numbering systems of the Internet.

Since it's creation in 1988, ICANN has been the corporation responsible for
the management of the namespace of the Internet: IP and DNS. Resources on
the Internet - such as websites - are accessed by an IP (Internet Protocol)
address and the DNS (Domain Name System) converts easily remembered domain
name addresses to IP addresses and vice versa: 190.00.00.10 to example.com
etc.

Up until the 1st of October, 2016, oversight of ICANN and IANA - IANA assigns
numbers on the Internet but is under the control of ICANN - was conducted by the
(DOC) United States Department of Commerce and specifically the (NTIA) National
Telecommunications and Information Administration of the DOC. This ultimately resulted
in the U.S. having the final say on a critical aspect of the technical governance of the
Internet.

The U.S. governments oversight of ICANN, and therefore oversight of the Internet's
namespace, has long been a 'bone of contention' with other nation states who
have demanded that oversight of the Internet's namespace should be ceded to
the UN (United Nations) or an international organisation (discussed at NetMundial
Initiative 2014). The U.S. government has never appeared willing to give in
to such demands, but has acknowledged the criticism directed at it's ongoing
oversight of the ICANN; releasing in 2009 the 'Affirmation of Commitments'
to improve international oversight. ICANN has been criticised by commercial
companies - Coca Cola etc - for it's continued TLD (top level domain) expansion
program.

IANA predates ICANN and was created / controlled by Jon Postel; some likened
Postel to an 'Internet God' due to his control of it's numbering system. It
is one reason why ICANN was place in control of IANA; due to the unease some
in the U.S. government had about Postel's power over the Internet. Likewise,
nation states like Russia, China, France and Brazil are now expressing similar
unease about the DOC's and ICANN's control of the Internet.

ICANN's contract with the United States Department of Commerce ("DOC") was
outlined in documents such as: 'Memorandum of Understanding' (2006) and 'Affirmation
of Commitments' (2009). The last of which outlined that the ICANN would have
a multistakeholder governance model, but it still retained oversight by the
DOC. On the 10th of March, 2016, the DOC signed an agreement to remove this
oversight. Therefore, governance of the Internet's namespace moved to a purely
multistakeholder governance model. This still has not satisfied some countries
like Russia, but it is a significant step for the U.S. government to make,
ceding control of the Internet's namespace.

Internet users are unlikely to notice any change whatsoever, as the ICANN
largely operated with no interference from the DOC. The news of the removal
of U.S. government oversight was met with dismay by political figures like
Ted Cruz, who are concerned by the growing influence / power of foreign governments
upon the Internet.